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Sunday, August 31, 2014

ellagee and Sweet Heart Polish have teamed up to bring you a ridiculously gorgeous Pirates of the Caribbean Duo! This collaboration box is based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney!

ellagee's polish is Drink Up, Me Hearties, Yoho!, a sparkly gold shimmer polish. Inspired by the gold in a pirates chest, the gold looks antiqued. I used three thin coats for the photos below. As always, this polish was perfect in application!

Sweet Heart Polish's contribution is called Inflame & Ignite, a clear base with lots of tiny holo and metallic glitter in gold, red, and black. I love how this transforms the gold base into a sparkly mani of awesomeness! This glitter applied flawlessly and looked gorgeous! These polishes will be available today at 3:00pm EST! For $22 you get both polishes and a piece of cursed treasure for your keys! Enjoy! :)

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Sometimes I sit down and want to do something really cool with my nails. Then I remember how much time and work goes into them, and I decide to do something easier. But every once in a while, I have the extra time...and that's how these nails came about! Also, they only required a dotting tool, which eliminated some of the difficulty that makes me shy away from certain types of nail art (water marbling!).

I began with two coats of KBShimmer's Let's Not Coral on all my nails except for my accent, which is two coats of KBShimmer's Eclipse. I then used a large, medium, and small dotting tool to create the design you see! The blue polish is KBShimmer's Sky Jinks and the purple is Pansy-Monium. It's hard to explain how I did the design...the most helpful thing I can tell you is that I began with the large black dot on my pinkie and index nail, circling out from there with the other colors. For my middle nail, I began with the black dots in the middle and filled in from there. My ring nail was just random dots. Enjoy! :)

Thursday, August 28, 2014

I was so exited when these polishes showed up on my doorstep because they are all well loved China Glaze polishes! The best part was that I didn't have a lot of them! My favorite thing about this collection is that you could get it and have a really diverse collection with lots of possible combinations. This collection consists of two solid colors (a cream and a shimmer), and six glitter polishes in a clear base. For the ease of showing all of the polishes to you, I polished the solid colors for my bases and then used a few glitters over them, kind of like a skittle mani.

First up, I began with a base of White on White. This is a classic white cream polish. Honestly, a white cream is a must in every polish collection. I keep multiple bottles of my favorites on hand, but this was one white polish I've never used before. I was really pleased with it because it was easy to apply, didn't go on streaky, and became opaque with two coats. Since my usual go-to is Zoya Purity, I was really pleased that I enjoyed this one so much! It's much easier for me to find near where I live, and it's also reasonably priced!

On top of White on White I did Pizzazz (index and ring), I Pink I Can (middle), and Your Present Required (pinkie). All glitters show one coat. Each of them was very easy to apply, and didn't give me any clumping issues. Pizzazz is definitely my favorite of all of these glitters, simply because it's so much more dense and colorful than the others!

This next one is definitely my favorite of these two manis! The base is Heart of Africa, which may be my new favorite deep red shimmer. OH MY GOSH. She's just so so gorgeous! I ended up leaving my pinkie nail glitter-less so that you could see her in all of her glory, by herself. I did two coats of Heart of Africa, which was smooth and easy to apply.

I then used Fairy Dust (index), Luxe and Lush (middle), and Techno (ring). Fairy Dust and Luxe and Lush are the only polishes I owned prior to receiving this collection. As far as Fairy Dust is concerned, let me just say, I have a backup of my backup because, well, she's just amazing! Seriously, you can spice up any mani with Fairy Dust and make it that much prettier! All glitters show one coat. Luxe and Lush is the only one that can be a little difficult to use because it's shredded glitter. Which ones of these are your favorites? Enjoy! :)

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Let me start out by saying that I don't know what I was going for when I began these nails. However, I do know that they didn't turn out the way I expected them to. I wasn't even going to put them up here, but my friends made me after I complained about how they weren't what I wanted them to be...hahaha!

Ok, so I began with two coats of KBShimmer's Oh Splat! on my pinkie and ring nails. I'd been dying to buy Oh Splat! for quite some time, so I finally broke down and purchased it a few weeks ago. It was so easy to apply, even though it's loaded with glitter! And all of those colors?! Woohoo!

On my index and middle nails, I polished two coats of China Glaze White on White. Then, using polishes from ellagee's Stained Glass collection, I randomly polished stripes all over my nails. Some were horizontal, some were vertical, all came out looking like a tablecloth. Therefore, I have dubbed this fail Tablecloth Nails! Hahaha! Enjoy! :)

Monday, August 25, 2014

Laura recently released a new polish, Ice Bucket, to support the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge that has been going around on Facebook lately. $5 from every bottle will be donated to the ALS Association, and the polish is available for $10 until August 31!

Ice Bucket is a shimmery, iridescent base with pale blue, frosty white, and rainbow iridescent square glitter. I did one coat of Ice Bucket over three coats of Zoya Genevieve. Ice Bucket was easy to apply, super smooth, and plenty of the glitter squares came out onto my nails easily! While you're over at ellagee.com, Laura is also selling Hear Me Roar and donating $5 from each bottle to my classroom's Donors Choose project! Hear Me Roar is $10.75. That ends today! Enjoy! :)

Saturday, August 23, 2014

I saw some awesome nails on instagram the other day and, of course, I can't remember what account I saw them on! Boo! However, the artist had achieved the nail art look by working with wet polish. I decided to give it a shot and while it isn't a total fail, it didn't turn out as awesome as I had hoped. I will definitely be trying these again. Soon.

I began with a base of one coat of Zoya Veronica, a gorgeous red wine cream from Zoya's new Entice Collection. I have to tell you, I was struck by how beautiful this polish is. It's a perfect wine color, and it's just so so WOW. So after I had my first layer of Veronica on, I grabbed my large dotting tool, and dropped some polish onto paper next to me. For this polish I used Zoya Sansa (GoT!), an eggplant purple polish with gold shimmer. This beauty comes from the new Ignite Collection, and she too is fabulous! When Sansa was on the paper, I polished a thick coat of Veronica on my nails and, while it was still wet, dotted thick blobs on Sansa all over my nails. I was generous with the amount of polish in my blobs, and I went in a counterclockwise fashion, starting in the bottom corner of my nail. You have to work fast because the premise is that the wet blob of polish will expand in the wet polish on your nail. As I continued this on my other hand, I discovered that a thicker coat of Veronica led to better blob spreading. If you do it correctly, your blobs will kind of form around one another, making it look like a stone walkway. A few of my blobs achieved this, but not many of them.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Zoya recently released a second set of neutrally colored polishes. While neutral colors aren't normally my thing, I appreciate the effort Zoya has made to produce more work appropriate nail polish colors. I'm lucky that I can wear pretty much anything to work, but I know others don't have that luxury. That being said, Zoya's second neutral collection, Naturel Deux, is available now!

Their first collection focused on lighter skin tones and rose colored polishes. This collection has been darkened to focus on darker skin tones and darker rose colored polishes. I have the browns from this collection to show you today! All of the polishes in this collection are creams and they are all shown using two coats. As can be expected from Zoya, the formula is flawless. All of these polishes were smooth and creamy, with no application issues whatsoever. These polishes can be purchased at salons, Ulta, and online! Enjoy! :)

Zoya Spencer is the lightest of the browns. This polish is very coffee/caramel-ish to me.

Zoya Chanelle is the medium shade of the three brown polishes. Zoya describes her as a toasted almond cream color.

Finally, Zoya Emilia is the darkest of the trio. This polish is super chocolatey, reminding me of a dark chocolate bar.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

A newish type of nail art has been going around lately, especially on instagram. I decided I had to give it a try, and I'm happy to report that it's so easy! I've actually done this type of art a few times since, and I love it! I didn't know what to call this design. Laura from ellagee said it looked like jellyfish when I texted her a picture, so they have since been dubbed jellyfish nails! I began with two coats of ellagee Forgetful Lucy. Once that was dry, I watered down some blue acrylic paint. I would say it was about 80% paint, 20% water. Then, using a dotting tool, I dabbed on watery blue dots all over my nails. I worked with my four fingers at one time, then did my thumb on its own before moving to the next hand. This prevented any watery dot slides across or off of my nail. Once all of my fingers had watery blue dots chilling on the surface, I barely touched a q-tip to each dot until all of the water had been absorbed by the q-tip. This left a ring of color behind on my nail. If you want the ring of color to be darker, leave the blob on for longer. My pinkie nail got the longest sitting time, which is why those blobs are darker. When I was done with the blue, I did the same thing with the purple, then the red. Finally, I did a coat of top coat! I love working with acrylic paint because it doesn't drag when you do top coat, and any mistakes or paint on your skin wash right off! Does this seem like a style of nail art you could do? Enjoy! :)

Monday, August 18, 2014

I'm really excited to be bringing you guys a new-to-me brand today! I was recently chosen to work with Poppy Nail Polish, a newer indie brand based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Poppy polish is 5-free, vegan, and cruelty free! Tiffany has been awesome to work with, and she really dedicates herself to her polish. I've been impressed thus far and can't wait to bring you more Poppies in the future!

Today I have two Poppy polishes for you! Emerald City is a shimmery emerald green polish that is simply stunning! For some reason, my photos ended up looking less green than this polish is. I did my best to color correct them, but be assured that this polish really is an emerald green. The bottom picture is pretty accurate. I did two smooth coats of Emerald City followed by one coat of top coat.

Next up is Haute Night Out, a beautiful cherry red polish that seemed more jelly than cream to me. This polish is so amazing! It's the PERFECT red, and it just looks so juicy and squishy to me! I ended up doing two coats for the opacity you see below (and one coat of top coat). I can't get over how much I love this polish!

Make sure you check out Tiffany's polishes! She also posts deals on Instagram from time to time! Enjoy! :)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

I'm in love with the nails I have to show you today! Laura asked me to do some nail art with her jelly polishes, and I wound up creating this tie dye pattern of sorts!

I began with two coats of ellagee Latte, a super light cream colored polish. Once Latte was dry, I used Selenium Glass and a thin nail art brush to create a top of a question mark type shape in the middle of my nail. I just kind of moved the brush in super short strokes so it ended up looking like little lines forming the shape I wanted. From there, I just filled in the space around that mark following the same pattern and the same brush stroke. For this I used Sulphur Glass, Cadmium Glass, Chromium Glass, Cobalt Glass, and Manganese Glass. This design was super easy, and jelly polishes are pretty forgiving if you go astray. One coat of top coat sealed in all of this awesomeness! Enjoy! :)

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Hello! I hope you didn't miss me too much! Being back at work has been keeping me really busy lately! BUT, I have a really fun, unique dotticure for you today that I did using some greens and pinks from Zoya's Bubbly and Tickled Collections!

I began with a base of Zoya Kitridge on all of my nails. When she was dry, I put striping tape down the middle of my nails and polished Zoya Tilda on half of my nail. So, I was left with half pink, half green nails. Now comes the tricky-ish part! I dotted Kitridge down the green area just to the right of the middle line. Then, I dotted Tilda on top so the pink dots turned out looking like gibbous moons. Finally, I dotted Zoya Harper in the middle of my middle dots, and Zoya Stassi next to the middle dots. Does that makes sense at all? Hahaha! Enjoy! :)

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

{Press Sample}Remember when I posted about the I Have ESPN Collection by ellagee? Well, Laura has revamped and modified the collection a little bit, and now it's going up for pre-order at noon central time today! If you pre-order, you get a 15% discount! Woohoo! These polishes are all gorgeous, whether you're as obsessed with Mean Girls as I am or not! :)

First up is Boo, You Whore! This polish is a vivid teal-turquoise polish with sparkly holo awesomeness! This polish was so smooth and perfectly wonderful to polish with. I did two coats plus top coat for these photographs. The holo pictures were taken in LED lighting.

I'm a Mouse, DUH! is a greyed pink-lavender with sparkly gorgeousness and scattered holo. This polish was also smooth and perfect in two coats! I adore how this one looks, especially in the sunlight! It's office appropriate while being amazing at the same time!

The last holo of the collection is On Wednesdays We Wear Pink. This one has been changed from the original collection, so that Hear Me Roar could be kept intact and the pink would match the pink from the movie better. This one is now a holo candy pink that had full coverage in two coats!

The first of the two glitters of this collection is So Fetch, a clear base with silver, black, and purple holo glitter. Yes, those a teeny tiny stars in there! I did one coat over Boo, You Whore!

The last polish of this collection is You Can't Sit With Us. I LOVE THIS POLISH! It's a clear base with pink, silver, and teal holo glitters. There are a lot of circle glitters. CIRCLE GLITTERS! And also, those cute teeny tiny stars again!

What do you think of this collection? Which one(s) do you like best? Enjoy! :)